. >> over the past month, president obama has been spending a lion's share of his time negotiating with speaker boehner, that did not work. what can you tell us about the key individuals involved in the process now, president obama, senator majority leader harry reed and mitch mcconnell. what is the tone? >> it's all about the senate right now, that is one of the more remarkable developments. all along we thought it would be between the obama white house and house speaker john boehner and there was a logic behind that. because getting legislation out of the house is the trickier part of crafting any type of deal. but with the house saying look, we need the senate to do something, the last ditch effort is occurring in the senate right now. i spoke to staffers close to senator mcconnell that said there was optimism on their side yesterday, including from their boss, senator minority leader mitch mcconnell to get a deal. of course, any kind of word in reading from the members themselves will not come until tomorrow, but it's both chris and luke that said in the segment before mine, there i